Smith, KS: data center power outlook

Grid position at a glance

Serving utilities

MIDWEST ENERGY INC, PRAIRIE LAND ELECTRIC COOP INC, ROLLING HILLS ELECTRIC COOP, SOUTH CENTRAL PUBLIC PWR DIST, SOUTHERN PUBLIC POWER DISTRICT, WAPA-- WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION, WESTERN COOP ELECTRIC ASSN INC

ISO / market

SPP (Southwest Power Pool)

Highest grid access

345 kV

Substations in county

4

Industrial retail rate

8.0¢/kWhState-level EIA-861 industrial average. The map colours by this, not by a per-county rate.

Per-utility rates in county

3 of 7 serving utilities: 7.6 to 13.3¢/kWhLowest to highest industrial rate among the utilities serving this county (EIA-861 Sales to Ultimate Customers). A spread, not the county’s rate, and it covers only the serving utilities that report one.

Interconnection queue

None on record

Proposed generation

None on file (EIA-860M)Units filed with EIA as planned or under construction (Form EIA-860M). Declared intent from the federal inventory, not the interconnection queue and not guaranteed capacity.

Grid carbon intensity

872 lb CO2/MWh

Water withdrawals

3.2 Mgal/dAll uses, freshwater. Water already withdrawn locally, not water available for a new load.

Construction labor near site

4,961 employed in construction within ~120 km (21 of 24 counties reporting)A large build needs hundreds of skilled construction workers on site for one to three years. A county with few of them within commuting range means bussing crews in, per diem, and housing, which is real cost and schedule risk. This counts people employed in construction within about a 120 km drive (BLS QCEW), summed across nearby counties. It is not labor known to be available: most are already committed to other projects, and no public data reveals who is free.

Grid conditions in Smith

The material below frames Smith, Kansas for a prospective large load, drawing only on public sources. Grid access in Smith extends to 345 kV, a high-voltage line class. Only 4 substations is mapped in Smith, Kansas, keeping interconnection points few.

Interconnection over Smith runs through the SPP market (Southwest Power Pool) and its rules. For Smith, the rate shown is the state industrial average of 8.0 cents per kWh (EIA-861), a state figure and not a county-specific one. Beneath that state average, the utilities serving Smith that report an industrial rate span 3 of 7 serving utilities: 7.6 to 13.3¢/kWh, shown as context and never as the county rate.

Across the covered feeds, Smith, Kansas carries no interconnection-queue project, from either real quiet or a feed not yet loaded. EIA-860M lists nothing planned or under construction for Smith, Kansas, which is a national filing and so a real zero. Smith sits under a balancing authority that eGRID puts at 871.526 lb CO2 per MWh.

Smith withdrew 3.19 million gallons per day for all uses in the USGS 2015 data, which counts demand, not headroom. About 4,961 people are employed in construction within a 120 km commute of Smith (BLS QCEW), which frames staffing distance rather than free labour.

For Smith, treat this as screening-grade county context useful for narrowing a search rather than settling a site. Taken together, the figures for Smith, Kansas describe the grid around a prospective site, drawn from public data with their gaps left visible on purpose. To move past screening in Smith, Kansas, a specific address needs its own interconnection study, which this page does not attempt. The figures for Smith, Kansas refresh as their public datasets do, and the exact sources and dates sit in the source log below this section.

Sources